


Selfless, Cold & Composed

by ElizabethWilde



Series: Learning How to Smile [3]
Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Angst, Break Up, Drabble, F/M, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-10-27
Updated: 2003-10-27
Packaged: 2018-02-22 20:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2521442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizabethWilde/pseuds/ElizabethWilde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean and Scott complete the separation process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Selfless, Cold & Composed

**Author's Note:**

> The song used is "Selfless, Cold & Composed" by Ben Folds Five despite my original intention to use only Everclear songs in the series.

Come on baby now throw me a right to the chin  
Don't just stare like  
You never cared  
I know you did  
You just smiled  
Like a bank teller  
Telling me blankly  
Have a nice life  
~ Ben Folds Five "Selfless, Cold and Composed"

"Got the room?" Scott asked, his voice painfully even as he sat at the desk. He had heard Jean's entrance, of course, but he remained seated with his back turned to her. To someone who knew him, someone like Jean, the tension in his shoulders was obvious, his posture a bit too straight. 

Jean stepped into the room and hesitated, surprised to find herself so soon a stranger to the place she and Scott called home at the end of the night together for so long. Already it seemed cold and distant. "Of course." Xavier naturally expressed his concern before giving his full approval to her moving out, but he would never consider standing in the way of the personal lives of his students; moreover, he understood her words. The woman almost smiled at the remembrance of the words. "I'm afraid to say I actually saw this coming..." The near-smile turned into the internal equivalent of a sob and Jean moved deeper into the room.

Rising suddenly enough to startle Jean, Scott turned, stood, and started toward her. There were tear tracks on his cheeks and she could see now that his hair was uncombed, his shirt slightly wrinkled. "Don't leave." A note of desperation missing before now seeped into the words like a cloying wine, momentarily dulling Jean's resolve. 

She opened her mouth to say she would stay, wouldn't ever leave, then closed it again and shook her head. "I need to. We both need it, Scott. We aren't... it isn't working anymore, and we both know it."

"I don't-"

"You do." 

The words, spoken quietly and without any trace of anger-or anything else for that matter-seemed a breaking point. Scott's jaw set and he took a step closer. "You wanted me to yell? To... to... fight with you? What about you? Jesus, Jean, you're throwing me away like the years we spent together didn't mean shit and you haven't even batted a fucking eyelash!"

The redhead stood stock-still. Scott never cursed. Ever. "S-scott, I-"

"You're sorry? You hope we can still be friends?" Scott's mouth twisted into a frightening mimicry of a smile. "I don't want to be friends. We were friends for... for a long time. Then we realized it could be more. And I'm not going back."

"All or nothing?" Jean said calmly. Her mind reeled, and the only thing she could find to counter Scott's suddenly passionate words was reason, the calm he always displayed. "Isn't that a little-"

"Childish. Absolutely. I love you, Jean, and... maybe I've done things wrong. Maybe I handled this whole thing... It doesn't matter! We're worth more than this. It was just a stupid fight! We can't throw-"

"We aren't. Not because of 'a stupid fight', anyway," Jean clarified. She clasped her hands in front of her and then began twisting the engagement ring on her finger. "We've... we've been falling apart and... I think everyone... I think we didn't want to see it. You still don't."

"Jean-"

"This is what needs to happen, Scott." With a final twist, the ring slid off, and Jean held it out. "Take it."

Scott's hand shook as he complied. Arguing didn't help. He had yelled and he had asked her to stay. He had told her what he thought. Still he found himself standing in the middle of their room-his room-and holding her engagement ring. It must have been hours later when Scott finally realized he hadn't moved yet, that he still stood in the room with the ring, Jean long since gone.


End file.
